When Photos Grow Up
The Gestation Period of a Photograph.
Lionel Messi holds a baby Lamine Yamal. - Joan Monfort/AP
A “long-forgotten” set of pictures from 2007 has caused a sensation. becoming global news.
They show the world’s greatest footballer bathing someone else’s baby for a charity calendar. Press officers are slightly more guarded about such things today. Back then the pictures would have been soon forgotten in the daily stream of online photos. But that baby has grown up to become professional footballer Lamine Yamal, rising star of Euro 2024, prompting the papers to ask now: was this Yamal's anointing?
Chance encounter
Lamine Yamal turned 17 the day before the final and does his homework between games. He was born to immigrant parents living in poverty-stricken Rocafonda in the Mataró area of Catalonia. They won a raffle to meet a Barca star at Camp Nou as part of a UNICEF calendar project. Messi was clearly a very, very good player, but he still required a first name at this point. Did Messi’s touch bring talent to the baby? Did the boy child inspire Messi to become even greater?
The imagery of baptism, washing of feet and ordained destiny seem hard to avoid. So too is the feeling, all too common these days, that this might be a publicity stunt, enabled by AI. But Yamal’s dad posted an image on Instagram last week, suggesting the photos were neither fabricated nor “long-forgotten” in that household. This Messi image is probably framed above their bath, faded by time and bubbles.
A photograph’s slow gestation
The story’s layers reveal how the significance of photographs can grow or fade, depending on their circumstances. A curator once described this to me as the picture’s “gestation period”, when the passing of time combined with chance makes something more of a moment or rather reveals the true significance that we missed at the time.
The story of Yamal’s photographs also shows us how reflection, and a bit of journalistic shimmying, helps a story transcend its times. In this case, the doting dad had kept the vision of that anointing alive: only now do we see what he saw. We forget, but photographs help us remember. Maybe the photograph itself has manifested this moment?
The future of the past
Let’s leave the last word to the freelance photographer of the image, Joan Monfort. I love the joy he expressed from knowing the work resonates with an audience. It’s a revelation even to him that the layers of reality, awkward and slightly weird, have become more meaningful and even stranger over time. His photo has grown up.
“It’s very exciting to be associated with something that has caused such a sensation,” he said. “To tell you the truth it’s a very nice feeling.”
So have hope: perhaps your most significant work is already behind you! There is a future in what has already been.
That thought gives me a very nice feeling.